Norwegian offers Fast Track to all corporate customers

All corporate customers who have an agreement  with Norwegian can now use the Fast Track entrance at several airports free of charge. This allows for a much faster security check. This offer is now valid for all ticket categories, including low-fare, during a trial period until the end of April 2015.

The fastest way through airport security id the Fast Track entrance. All corporate customers who have an agreement with Norwegian can now use the Fast Trace entrance free of charge. The offer applies to  all ticket categories, including low-fare. The offer is valid until April 30^th in 2015. Fast track can normally only be used with full-flex tickets.

“We would like to give all of our corporate customers the opportunity to go through security faster via the Fast Track entrance and we are glad to be able to offer all corporate customers that have an agreement with Norwegian access to Fast Track for a limited period of time," said Chief Sales Officer Lars Sande.

Fast Track is available at the following airports

• Stockholm Arlanda (Priority Lane)
• Copenhagen Kastrup (CPH Express)
• Oslo Gardemoen
• Bergen Flesland
• Stavanger Sola
• Trondheim Vaernes

Fast Track for corporate customers                   

• Valid for companies with a contact and that have corporate code at Norwegian.
• Boarding cards and electronic tickets with a barcode can be used for access through Fast Track.
• Fast Track is only valid on international flights at the Stockholm and Copenhagen Airports  
• In Norway, fast track is valid on both domestic and international flights at designated airports
• The trial period is valid until April 30^th in 2015
• The entrance to Fast Track is marked with Fast Track, Priority Lane or CPH Express

Norwegian continues to expand internationally

Norwegian continues to expand internationally – launches eleven new routes and adds departures on existing routes

Published:11.12.2014 By:Daniel Pilpel Kirchhoff
Norwegian continues to expand and launches eleven  new routes. We are also adding many departures on existing, popular routes.

Norwegian is growing internationally and expanding its route network in Europe. The company is adding ten new routes from next spring between Spain and various European countries. Norwegian is launching flights between Barcelona and Birmingham, Dubrovnik, Trondhjem, Stavanger and Billund. We will also launch three new routes between Madrid and Catania, Dubrovnik and Birmingham. Furthermore, we will operate two new routes between Malaga and Birmingham and Edinburgh in addition to a new route between Helsinki and Pula.

“Norwegian has become one of the world’s largest low cost carriers. Now, more than 40 percent of our traffic is outside of Scandinavia, which illustrates a significant international expansion over the past year. We look forward to both our crew and passengers flying on the new routes,” says Thomas Ramdahl, Chief Commercial Officer in Norwegian.

Many new frequenciesFurthermore, many new frequencies are added on existing routes. From all the Nordic countries, Norwegian will add departures to popular destinations in Spain, Italy and Croatia among others.

“Our passengers appreciates our product with new aircraft and free WiFi. We have many popular routes from Scandinavia and now we are giving our passengers more opportunities to fly with us to some of our fantastic destinations,” says Thomas Ramdahl.

New routes in 2015
Barcelona-Billund |summer route |two weekly departures |first flight June 1^stBarcelona-Stavanger |summer route |two weekly departures |first flight June 4^thBarcelona-Trondhjem |summer route |two weekly departures |first flight June 3^rdBarcelona-Birmingham |full year |two weekly departures |first flight June 1^stBarcelona-Dubrovnik |summer route |two weekly departures |first flight June 3^rd
Madrid-Catania |summer route |one weekly departures |first flight April 4^thMadrid-Dubrovnik |summer route |two weekly departures |first flight March 31^stMadrid-Birmingham |full year |three weekly departures |first flight March 31^st
Malaga-Birmingham |full year |three weekly departures |first flight December 11^thMalaga-Edinburgh |full year |two weekly departures |first flight March 31^st
Helsinki-Pula |mid-summer |one weekly departure |first flight June 27^th

New Frequencies on existing routes Oslo-Barcelona | 13 weekly departures (increase from 11)
Oslo-Malaga | 12 weekly departures. In the midsummer 16 weekly departures (increase from 10)
Bergen-Alicante | 3 weekly departures (increase from two)
Stockholm-Alicante | 7 weekly departures (increase from 6
Stockholm-Malaga | 9 weekly departures. In the midsummer 10 weekly departures (increase from 8)
Gothenburg-Barcelona| 4 weekly departures (increase from 3)
Copenhagen-Malaga | 13 weekly departures (increase from 12)
Copenhagen-Mallorca | 9 weekly departures. In the midsummer 11 weekly departures (increase from 7)
Copenhagen-Krakow | 5 weekly departures (increase from 3)
Copenhagen-Edinburgh | 6 weekly departures (increase from 5)
Copenhagen-Budapest | 8 weekly departures (increase from 6)
Helsinki-Venice | 1 weekly departure. In the midsummer 2 weekly departure
Helsinki-Burgas | 2 weekly departures (increase from 1)

We have more satisfied customers than SAS in Sweden

                                               

A new 2014 poll from Svensk Kvalitets Index (Swedish quality index) shows that our customers are happier than the ones flying with SAS.

Today, Svensk Kvalitetsindex (Swedish Quality Index) published their yearly customer
satisfaction poll in the transportation branch. For the third year in a row, the poll shows that our customers are more satisfied than SAS’. The poll reflects image, expectations, product quality and service quality. This year Norwegian has an index score on 70.2 points while SAS scores 67.4 points.

“I’m very pleased with this result and want to praise our hard working and skilled employees who every day makes sure that our passengers enjoy their experience on board with us,” says Thomas Ramdahl, Norwegians Chief Commercial Officer.

 

Qantas A380 turned around after technical problems, becoming third to do so in 24 hours

Qantas has confirmed an Airbus A380 forced to turn back en route to Dallas yesterday was a replacement, after the original aircraft was grounded following an air conditioning fault.

Three Qantas planes were forced to make unscheduled landings in the space of just 24 hours, but the pilots' association says it is confident the problems on the aircraft were not related.
In the most recent incident, an Airbus heading from Sydney to Dallas on the world's longest non-stop commercial flight was forced to turn back four hours into its flight after problems with toilets, seat power and in-flight entertainment.

The airline said flight QF7 returned to Sydney for "customer comfort" reasons.
"While the aircraft could have continued flying safely to Dallas, the decision was made to return to Sydney in the interests of passenger comfort on what is a long flight," the airline said in a statement.

The route was originally meant to be flown by another A380 which had earlier been forced to make an emergency landing in Perth after its air conditioning failed.
In the other incident, a Qantas flight from Perth to Karratha was turned back on Monday afternoon after a strong odour was detected.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce dismissed concerns that the turn-backs were unusual.
"There are turn-backs that happen. Thousands of them. Every year, around the globe," he said.
"Boeing say the worldwide fleet is ... one turn-back for every 9000 sectors operated. Qantas's record is one in every 18000 sectors operated. That's half of the 737 fleet."
Paul Cousins from the Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said investigations were nonetheless underway to determine whether the incidents "are independent of each other, or whether they are a systemic issue".

"We have over 3,000 members Australia wide, and approximately half of that within the Qantas network," Mr Cousins said.

"So our ability to get that information is excellent, and we'll rely on those members to look for that information and then we'll go to direct cause."

Australian and International Pilots Association president Nathan Safe said he was confident the problems on all three planes were isolated.

"There's not too many emergencies that really required a rushed or immediate speed of light response at all," Mr Safe said.
"Generally, aeroplanes are built tough enough and with enough redundancies and all that kind of stuff that you do have some time to assess the situation."

Incidents show Qantas 'under pressure'

Transport Workers' Union national secretary Tony Sheldon said the incidents demonstrated that Qantas was "under a lot of pressure".
"They [Qantas] have outsourced considerable amounts of work, both within the country and outside," Mr Sheldon said.
"They've slashed the work force to a point where they haven't got systems in place to properly deal with the issues that confront the airline.

 

"It's critically important that Qantas engage with its workforce about how to make sure the airline's successful, because their futures are way beyond the tenure of any director of the board and ... anyone else that holds an executive position."

Many passengers were unimpressed with Qantas' measures.
"We had a three-year-old that was screaming for four hours. I can imagine they were more upset at that," one said.

Another said: "They gave us a form letter. A nicely printed form letter. Nothing personalised. There was not a lot of sympathy or empathy last night."

Passengers also took to social media to express their frustration at the delays.
"My favourite part of that flight was when @Qantas couldn't flush the toilets and cabin electrics wouldn't work," tweeted one passenger on QF7.

Another tweeted: "Sorry @Qantas, this flight was painful. But your flight crew were amazing."
The Sydney to Dallas flight is regarded as the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world, with passengers typically spending more than 15 hours in the air.

The company said customers who did not live in Sydney had been booked into hotels, and travellers had been rebooked onto another flight departing this morning.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-08/third-qantas-plane-turned-around-within-24-hours/5953160

Police investigating the plane linked to the threat. Photo: TT

Flights resume after Arlanda bomb threat

Published: 09 Dec 2014 10:15 GMT+01:00
Updated: 09 Dec 2014 14:15 GMT+01:00

UPDATED: Delayed flights are now taking off at Stockholm's Arlanda airport following a bomb threat at terminal five. Police are still investigating what happened.

 

After waiting for more than three hours, passengers who were ordered to leave two sections of terminal five were allowed back to their gates at around 2pm.
The areas were evacuated on Tuesday morning following reports of fears that luggage in a plane contained a bomb.
"We received the threat at approximately 8:50 this morning and took immediate measures," Lars Byström from Stockholm police told The Local.

He declined to go into specific details but stated that there was a threat against "one plane" and not two as some media had been reporting. 

 

"My information is that it involves one plane. We have not yet spoken publicly about the nature of the threat. Officers are at the scene and the security operation is ongoing."

 

"It's not the first time we've received this kind of threat but it is not very common," Byström later told the AFP news agency, adding that flights were still taking off with slight delays.

 

Witnesses arriving at the airport in the morning said that some passengers were being stopped from checking in and others had been asked to leave the terminal after dropping off their baggage.

"A lot of people are confused about what is going on. It appears that flights are being delayed," said The Local's Paul Rapacioli who was at the airport soon after the threat emerged.
Passengers from his scheduled flight to Oslo were moved to another part of the airport but following "a bit of chaos" during the move, he reported that the mood soon became "pretty calm", with Swedes and international passengers waiting patiently for fresh information.
By mid-afternoon he reported "the cordon has been lifted and passengers are being allowed back into the gate area that was evacuated".

Passengers leaving terminal five on Tuesday. Photo: The Local
One passenger told Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper that a pilot gave a message over a radio that there was a bomb threat against the plane circulating beside it. He said that the passengers had been told to get off and return to their gate.
"Some gates are blocked off while the police investigate," Ulf Wallin, a press officer for Swedavia which operates the airport told TT.
 Another passenger told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio that police had evacuated a plane headed for Copenhagen following a bomb threat.
Other unconfirmed reports said that police had taken a suspect into custody following a threat to an aircraft.
Arlanda is Sweden's largest airport and acts as an important hub for the Stockholm region and Scandinavia. It operates flights to 172 global destinations.

One of the UK’s top newspapers rave about Norwegian’s transatlantic flights

                                                 
«It’s no wonder Norwegian is racking up awards,» says the journalist, who recently tested our Dreamliner between the UK and the US.

One of the UK’s biggest newspapers, Daily Mail, has been on board Norwegian’s Dreamliner and shared the verdict with its readers; Positive feedback all around, from the “charming service” and “impressive food” to “generous” leg room and “great prices”.
“The flight was absolutely fantastic! I was so impressed with the planes and the level of service. I'm actually booking another flight with Norwegian for next month! My only drawback is that you don’t have enough flights between London and the UK,” Tamara Abraham, Daily Mail’s journalist, said to Red Nose.

Make sure you read the whole article here.

Norwegian is yet again voted Europe’s best low-cost airline

Norwegian has once again been voted “Europe's best low-cost airline” - this time by AirlineRatings.com. The jury praises Norwegian’s ability to offer its passengers an innovative quality product and new routes at low fares. This is the second year running that Norwegian is awarded this international title by AirlineRatings.com. AirlineRatings.com recently announced the winners of its "Airline Excellence Awards". For the second year running, Norwegian is named “Europe's best low-cost airline” by the jury.

Winners from the other continents are: JetBlue (The Americas), Scoot (Asia / Pacific) and Kulula (Middle East / Africa). Norwegian is the only Nordic airline to receive a title. Last summer, Norwegian was also voted “Europe's best low-cost airline” by the renowned Skytrax World Airline Awards for the second year running. “The four airlines are standouts in their respective markets with very clever innovations and they consistently delivery an excellent value proposition. These airlines may not always offer the lowest fare but what they always do is deliver the best value. And these airlines open new routes and make travel fun for millions who could previously not afford to fly,” said AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas.

“This recognition means a lot and yet again confirms that customers appreciate Norwegian. We have new aircraft, free WiFi, low fares and many direct flights, but most importantly; we have skilled employees who every day ensure that our passengers enjoy their experience on board. Norwegian has won numerous international awards where the customers themselves have voted for us to become the best low-cost carrier. We will do our utmost and continue to work hard so that everyone has a good journey with us,” says Norwegian's CEO Bjørn Kjos.